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Biotech

Submission + - Regulators discover suspect gene in GMO crops (independentsciencenews.org)

Submitted by opencity
opencity writes: Regulators in the EU have discovered a potentially troubling gene in 54 of the 86 transgenic events (unique insertions of foreign DNA) commercialized to-date in the United States. How troubling is this from a technical standpoint? Should the plantings be revoked or studied more? As GMO inflames passions on both sides in the wider world here's a submission to slashdot where cooler heads discuss such things rationally.
NASA

Submission + - Company set to blast squadron of tiny satellites into space to mine asteroids (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "new company intends by 2015 to send a fleet of tiny satellites, known as cubesats into near-Earth space to mine passing asteroids for high-value metals. Deep Space Industries asteroid mining proposal begins in 2015 when the company plans to send out a squadron of 55lb cubesats called Fireflies that will explore near-Earth space for two to six months looking for target asteroids"
Businesses

Submission + - Microsoft announces release date for the most expensive tablet ever! (foxnews.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: FoxNews has the news (really!) that the Microsoft has announced that its Intel-powered Surface Windows 8 Pro will go on sale on February 9, 2013 in the U.S. and Canada.

FoxNews helpfully points out that you could get the best iPad money can buy for $829, the one 64GB of storage space and LTE connectivity.... or you could spend $70 more and get Microsoft’s Surface Pro — which, by the way, doesn’t even include the company’s slick new keyboard cover (that costs another $129.99).
Games

Submission + - Henk Rogers Looks to Social Games for World Peace (theepochtimes.com)

Submitted by jjp9999
jjp9999 writes: Henk Rogers, the publisher who brought Tetris to the world, and who created Japan's first RPG, Black Onyx, has another trick up his sleeve. Facing with controversy around whether video games are a source of real-world violence, Rogers is working out the concepts for a new type of game he belies can foster peace, solve real-world conflicts, and help people overcome social differences. To do this, he is looking at what brings people closer together, and what pushes people apart; and he believes that the key to creating such a project will be eliminating isolation in an online world. “Society, even though we are pushing seven or eight billion people in the world, we’re a society that isolates people, and I think that’s kind of creepy,” Rogers told The Epoch Times. “Let’s just put the isolated people together and let them be friends. Technology exists to do that, but somehow, technologically we haven’t done that.”
KDE

Submission + - The Road to KDE Frameworks 5 and Plasma 2 (vizzzion.org)

Submitted by
jrepin
jrepin writes: "KDE’s Next Generation user interfaces will run on top of Qt5, on Linux, they will run atop Wayland or Xorg as display server. The user interfaces move away from widget-based X11 rendering to OpenGL. Monolithic libraries are being split up, interdependencies removed and portability and dependencies cut by stronger modularization.

For users, this means higher quality graphics, more organic user interfaces and availability of applications on a wider range of devices.
Developers will find an extensive archive of high-quality, libraries and solutions on top of Qt. Complex problems and a high-level of integration between apps and the workspace allow easy creation of portable, high-quality applications.

The projects to achieve this goal are KDE Frameworks 5 and Plasma 2. In this article, you’ll learn about the reasons for this migration and the status of the individual steps to be taken."
Privacy

Submission + - Got A Wi-Fi-Enabled Phone? Stores Are Tracking You (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Call it Google Analytics for physical storefronts: if you've got a phone with wi-fi, stores can detect your MAC address and track your comings and goings, determining which aisles you go to and whether you're a repeat customer. The creator of one of the most popular tracking software packages says that the addresses are hashed and not personally identifiable, but it might make you think twice about leaving your phone on when you head to the mall."
Data Storage

Submission + - OCZ Releases First 1TB Laptop SSD (digg.com) 2

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: OCZ today released a new line of 2.5-in solid state drives that have up to 1TB of capacity. The new Octane SSD line is based on Indilix's new Everest flash controller, which allows it to reduce boot-up times by half over previous SSD models. The new SSD line is also selling for $1.10 to $1.30 per gigabyte of capacity, meaning you can buy the 128GB for about $166.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Let's see if anyone reads this: Current State of the Internet forums 3

Journal by JohnnyComeLately

I've always enjoyed that certain forums I've posted in had a certain decorum. For example, I used to get on F-Body.com every couple hours and swap info with Camaro and Firebird enthusiasts, until one day someone, rather than respond calmly, wrote, "F... you, you're full of s.." and let's just say that was the best part of it. I stopped going that day and have been back 3 or 4 times in the 6 or 7 years since.

Submission + - Self Assembling Foam Robot (discovery.com)

Submitted by b0bby
b0bby writes: Discovery News reports:
"Combine off-the-shelf insulation foam and modular robot components and you get a self-assembling robot that could be fit to a variety of tasks.

The Modular Robotics Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, in a project led by Shai Revzen, has created a robot that can be assembled from foam that hardens and pieces that allow the robot to move. The “foambot” looks ungainly, and it is. But once you have a shape — and a task — in mind, the foam sprayer can lay down a body plan that fits."
Google

Submission + - Gmail to unveil New Interface + Video (geekyjournal.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Gmail is an excellent webmail app and it appears set to re-launch its new interface. New interface is designed to strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful.

Submission + - NY Times paywall now has 300,000 subscribers (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It looks like the derided-on-slashdot paywall for the NY Times hasn't brought down the paper so far. The Times now reports 300,000 digital subscribers (to e-reader versions and the web combined) and digital advertising revenue for the part of the company that includes the paper has increased 6% this quarter

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